100 days healthy eating challenge

What you wear when you drop orpick up your kids from classes speaks of how much you care for public opinion and how unbelievably lazy you can be. The majority of people hover around the respectable average. But there are the ones who wear possibly the oldest usedT-shirt & mukkal (three-fourth) pant. Me. The ones who wear mix-and-mismatched churidhar sets. Me. There are a few like-minded lazy bums likeme out there. Our tribe put comfort over public opinion and laziness over propriety. I urge you to try it sometime to feel really and truly liberated.You’ll get inured to stares and judging looks. You’ll think less of others when you want to take the less trodden path. With that great piece of life advice, I am going the share the recipe of red rice puttu. I hope you’re eating healthy. Red rice sweet puttu is my favourite puttu among puttus. I have a thing for sweet breakfasts. Jagan doesn’t have that thing. So that must mean we’re the right match. I look for signs everywhere. He enjoys the puttu too but just not for breakfast. I can have this anytime of the day. The best part is it can be served at room temperature. You can prep a big batch of the red rice puttu flour up to “breaking up to the soft puttu texture” part and then refrigerate it in an airtight container. You can pull it out anytime, let stand for a bit to get to room temperature and just mix in sugar, coconut and ghee. I know that this recipe has quite a bit of sugar but remember this is for the entire recipe. In one portion, it is going to just a little bit more than what you putin your daily coffee or tea. Skip your coffee or tea the day you’re making this puttu if you’re very particular about sugar intake. This puttu is worth it. Print Recipe Red rice sweet puttu This sweet red rice puttu breakfast will sweeten your mornings! Fluffy, soft puttu studded with coconut and sugar and laced with ghee, yum! Cuisine Indian Prep Time 20 minutes Cook Time 10 minutes Servings 4 people Ingredients 250 gm Red rice puttu flour1/2 tsp SaltWarm water as necessary1/2 Coconut, grated6 tbsp Ghee3/4 cup Sugar Cuisine Indian Prep Time 20 minutes Cook Time 10 minutes Servings 4 people Ingredients 250 gm Red rice puttu flour1/2... Continue reading →

It’s that time of the year in Chennai when everyday is a potential school holiday. Give one holiday and we’re spoilt. We keep checking the news and whatsapp groups for a holiday announcement every day after that. For me, a school holiday means an extra hour of sleep, so that I start cooking late and I am late to office by the same amount of time that I am late on school days. I am consistent that way. I feel vulnerable when I am out of idli maavu (idli/dosa batter). It’s like you’re at a function and nobody seems to notice you and you don’t have your phone, so you can’t act busy. You could have scrolled through your empty whatsapp chat and looked at people’s profile pictures. Now you’re forced to look at people, half-smile because it’s not clear if they’re smiling at you. You end up making conversation with some aunty next to you and realize it’s not so bad after all. You realized you’re not as anti-social as you thought you were. Only when I am out of idli maavu do I explore other tiffen possibilities. I quite enjoy the different tiffens that I come up with and I am surprised I didn’t try these more often. One of those days, I made Peas poha with the leftover Aval (poha) from Krishna Jayanthi. I like my poha on the chewier side, so I don’t cook it too long. If you like it softer, you can sprinkle a little bit of water and cook a little longer. This Poha Upma is infinitely customizable. I skipped the usual boiled potatoes because I wanted to cut down the carbs. Instead I added peas. You could add sweet corn or paneer or anything else you fancy. You can add some grated ginger for extra zing. You can add fried cashews for extra interest. Make it your own. It’s infinitely easy and is full of fresh, yummy flavours. Enjoy! Print Recipe Peas poha upma Peas poha upma is infinitely easy and is full of fresh, yummy flavours. Enjoy! Prep Time 5 minutes Cook Time 5-8 minutes Servings 3-4 people Ingredients 4 cups Poha / Aval / Flattened rice 1 cup fresh green peas 1 Onion chopped fine 2 Green chillies chopped fine 1/2 tsp Mustard seeds 1/2 tsp Turmeric powder Salt to taste 1 lemon, juiced 2 tbsp oil 1/2 cup fresh... Continue reading →

I am a big fan of easy, lazy just blitz in the blender smoothies. The fruits I pick for my smoothies are easy to process without too much peeling or picking seeds. I prefer to have smoothies in the mornings. Sometimes I have the smoothie as the breakfast itself. I have a big jar of it mind you. Other times, if I am sharing it with Jagan and drinking only a small glass of it, I have the smoothie alongside my breakfast. All the smoothie recipes below are for 1-2 people. I do not believe anyone needs a recipe to make a juice or smoothie. At-least not yet. It is so much easier to sit where we are and scroll through the list of juices and order one than to lift the bum from the seat, walk over to the kitchen, peel that fruit, chop it, dump in the mixie with milk and honey and blend and pour into glasses and then wash that blender. But I urge you to lift the bum from the seat and make the smoothie yourself because you’ll eat more fruit if you make it yourself, you can control the amount of sugar in your smoothie and you would have lifted your bum. I hope these smoothies below inspire you to make your own delicious smoothies. There are just a few things to keep in mind. Use soft, ripe fruits for your smoothies. Mix and match any type of fruit. Anything goes. Avoid citrus fruits if you’re going to be using milk or yogurt as the base. Your smoothie can get curdled. You can use water, milk or yogurt as the base for your juice or smoothie. Have chilled milk and yogurt in your fridge at all times. Always use only chilled milk in your smoothies. Hot milk will curdle too when blended too long. You can use yogurt instead of milk if you prefer a slight tangy undertone. There are plenty of ways to sweeten your smoothie. Honey, brown sugar, powdered jaggery, jaggery syrup or just plain sugar. I’ve tried all of these at different times. Honey is very light sweet, so you may need to add more of it if you have a sweet tooth. The brown sugar adds a lovely caramel kind of note which I love in a banana smoothie. Sometimes I add just plain sugar too if I need straight... Continue reading →

It’s December already and I am seeing lots of 2018 lists all around– the best celebrity weddings of 2018, the worst fashion trends, best movies of 2018, the most trending hashtags on twitter and so on. I am tempted to make my own lists. I am amazed at all the things that seem just the same this year as they were last year and the year before and before that. Here is a list of things that haven’t changed this year. HDFC bank guys called me every day in 2018 just like they called me every single day in 2017 asking if I wanted a personal loan or credit card. I am basically a kind person so I don’t snap at them. I tell them I am not interested when I hear “HDFC”. But not yelling makes me super furious. I’ve therefore come to not pick up calls from unknown numbers. I’ve then had to explain myself to many an Amazon delivery guy for not picking up the phone. I still wake up 1 hour before the school van arrives. I go 15 minutes late to the 1 hour yoga class. Everybody at the gym is the same size I saw them last year. Strangely I’ve never met the weight-loss achievers on the pin-up board. All the books I intended to read this year are still unread. I am somewhere in the middle in each of them and I’ve forgotten what I’ve read so far. I make a list of the outstanding books to read and promptly misplace the list. I can’t resist the books I come across. I strategize that if I buy an interesting enough book and read it fully, that will give me the momentum to finish the rest of the books. I fall asleep on the 5th page. I’ve not acted as Vijay’s akka. I’ve not lost 10kilos yet. I am still paying EMIs. Overall I’d say it’s been a good year. I hope you had a great 2018 too. What was just the same for you this year? I’d love to hear. Please feel free to share in the comments. The recipe I am going to share with you today is a simple Aloo gobi roti, a kind of all-in-one dish. This Aloo Gobi roti is not a stuffed roti. In a stuffed roti, there is the possibility that your stuffing is not evenly distributed... Continue reading →

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Welcome to Foodbetterbegood!
I am Jayanthi. I love to cook. I am the one who lingers on at a function to have a word with the caterer to ask him for the vathal kuzhambu recipe. I amass recipes and I covet my knives.
I love a good story. I believe everyone does. If you love stories, if you love good food, you are at the right place.
You’ll see snatches of my writing, my DIY attempts and antique love in this space. You’ll see good food and simple recipes and plenty of stories. Foodbetterbegood is my diary.